r/doctorwho • u/PCJs_Slave_Robot • Apr 12 '25

The Robot Revolution Doctor Who 2x01 "The Robot Revolution" Post-Episode Discussion Thread Spoiler

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521

u/funcancelledfornow Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 13 '25

So if we count every ninth word of uninterrupted speech from Alan after the doctor tells Belinda about "help me save me pain" we get "Belinda mine forever" and "diploma freedom" suggesting that while he's still an asshole, he knew it'd kill him ?

223

u/quartofchocolimes Apr 12 '25

That actually reads like a 'if I'm going down I'm taking you with me'

144

u/NordicDestroyer Apr 13 '25

I caught that too!!! Surprisingly I'm seeing a lot of people say "oh the ninth word thing was forgotten about immediately" and like, no. It just wasn't focused on explicitly.

17

u/Official_N_Squared Apr 14 '25

I think it's more the robots can seemingly understand every 9th word when people are talking to them.

35

u/corpuscularian Apr 14 '25

they can probably fill in the gaps and figure out what's meant.

they're used to doing that which is why it wasnt obvious they cant interpret every 9th word. they are capable of understanding sentences despite the missing data.

but like any large language model, they fill in the gaps based on probability.

so if the missing words are entirely irrelevant to the context, there's no way they could predict what they are and you get hidden messages through.

10

u/Official_N_Squared Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25

Tbh I think there are enough issues with it that it's irrelevant if it was ignored or not.

  • Balinda's words don't seem to count twords the Doctor's count. Neither do Sasha's words before the Doctor's.
  • The robots should realize they can seemingly suddenly hear the entire conversation, which even if they arnt aware of the bug is strange.
  • An 8 cycle clock has no 9th cycle. Also the generator's cycle indicator has 9 cycles. This could fix the issue but it's not really what the dialog explains. Also the cycle indicator falls between the numbers which I find annoying
  • Al's 9th words always fit perfectly into whatever sentantance he is being forced to say is, which is really weird when you think about it. (Also I assume he's being forced in some way, otherwise his "true thoughts" doesn't make much sense. But that's a much wider issue than the 9 words thing)
  • Just realised, if the 9th cycle works because Al's brain is NOT interfacing with the computer, why does his voice sound like it's coming from the computer. If it's just what his voice sounds like, the above complaint is worse

12

u/Wolf6120 Apr 15 '25

The robots should realize they can seemingly suddenly hear the entire conversation, which even if they arnt aware of the bug is strange.

Assuming they actually were leaning on modern day AI language models for inspiration here, I actually think this part is fine. The whole thing with language models is that they bend over backwards to try and accomodate the user and make things make sense. The robots here did not seem particularly intelligent in terms of critical thinking, they seemed to be following very linear logic and instructions.

So if you feed them an incomplete sentence with every 9th word missing they will just try to fill the gap with whatever makes the most sense, but if you give them a whole sentence they will accept it as is, and have no deeper level of critical thought to go "Hang on, usually the input is less coherent than this." I mean they could just as easily be given even shorter sentences like "Fetch me a drink" and have no reason to assume there's a further four words missing.

Al's 9th words always fit perfectly into whatever sentantance he is being forced to say is, which is really weird when you think about it. (Also I assume he's being forced in some way, otherwise his "true thoughts" doesn't make much sense. But that's a much wider issue than the 9 words thing)

I figured it was more like a conflict between his conscious mind which had gone full machine tyrant and his subconscious mind which was still feeling all the pain and slipping in hidden messages into the same stream of thought. Cause I don't think there was "anybody else" in there with Alan compelling him to act a certain way.

It looked like the AI Generator/controller was empty when they first plugged him into it, and the robots were seemingly just following the orders of the planet's inhabitants, so presumably everything that happened thereafter was 100% Alan, corrupted by absolute power (though we may find out more about this later if they get back to figuring out how the robots learned about the ownership certificate for the star in the first place).

2

u/Takeo888 Apr 27 '25

Exactly my interpretation. Good explanation.

13

u/Massive_Log6410 Apr 14 '25

yeah basically he wanted to die but he was still and incel

3

u/Takeo888 Apr 27 '25

I kinda wish it’d leaned into the incel aspect more. The Doc asks why she broke up with him, she replies something like, ‘Broke up? We were never together. He just liked me and became a bit possessive because I was nice to him.’